Joe Biden continues to lead the polls and will be at the center of the debate in Los Angeles
Only seven of the 15 Democratic candidates will participate tonight in the sixth and final debate of 2019, which will be held one day after Congress approved Wednesday the political trial against President Donald Trump.
At the meeting, which will be held at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, the three candidates who lead the polls will face again: former Vice President Joe Biden heads the preferences with 28%, followed by Senator Bernie Sanders (19 %) and by Senator Elizabeth Warren (14.8%), according to the survey compilation RealClearPolitics (RCP).
Warren is expected to star in one of the confrontations of the day with Pete Buttigieg, who appears in fourth place (8.2%) of the polls. The senator and the mayor of South Bend have increased the exchange of attacks, especially on issues related to transparency, such as the origins of their campaign funds or information on tax refunds, according to The New York Times.
Andrew Yang, former executive of the Technology industry will also participate in the debate; Amy Klobuchar, Democratic Senator for Minnesota, and Tom Steyer, billionaire and climate change activist.
Biden arrives strengthened
Biden, 77, will occupy the central position on stage for the first time in this year's debates. The former vice president comes to the meeting strengthened by the support received from John Kerry, who was head of diplomacy in the second term of Barack Obama, but as in every debate fears arise for his propensity to leave the script and his lapse.
In early December, Biden was exasperated with a voter who questioned his son's role in the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which is at the center of the scandal that unleashed the process of political trial against Trump. The fellow Obama formula in his two terms responded airily disqualifying him as a "damn liar" and also called him "fat."
To cope with criticism, Biden published a medical report on his health on Tuesday.
The main capital of Biden is his experience and his promise that if he is elected the country will return to normal, leaving behind the polarization of the Trump era. With these credentials, Biden has won the precious support of the workers and the black communities.
In addition, he has promised to promise to open a path to citizenship to all undocumented immigrants currently in the country, delivering a series of proposals for his first 100 days of government, to, he said, reverse Trump's "harmful" immigration policy.
The debate will take place under the shadow of Bloomberg, which despite its progress in the surveys failed to qualify because it does not have the minimum of 200,000 individual donors. The millionaire, who finances his own campaign, knows that he was late to the race so he will concentrate on the states that will vote from March, including Texas and California.
The road to nomination
After the debate, there will only be 46 days left before the voting for the primaries begins in Iowa, on a long road that will end in the middle of the year with the Democratic Party Convention and the definition of the candidate who will participate in the November 2020 elections.
In this process, in which as the states vote the different candidates add delegates, the results in the first ones to vote are very important. In Iowa, Buttigieg – which lags nationally – takes the lead with 22.5%, followed by Sanders with 19.3% and Biden with 18%.
In the next state to vote, New Hampshire, the trend is reversed and Sanders is the favorite with 19%, followed by Buttigieg with 17.7% and Biden with 14%.
Edited by Felipe Gálvez T. with information from AFP
